By John Lyon
Arkansas News Bureau

LITTLE ROCK — Airplane manufacturer Hawker Beechcraft notified employees Tuesday it will make work force cuts on Friday, but the company would not say whether the layoffs will affect employees in Arkansas.

Fewer than 150 workers will be laid off, “very few” of them hourly employees, Rich Jiwanlal, the company’s vice president of human resources, said in a letter to company employees.

Wichita, Kan.-based Hawker Beechcraft employs about 8,000 people, about 900 of them at its Little Rock completion center, where the finishing touches are put on most of its planes.

Company spokeswoman Nicole Alexander would not say how many, if any, employees in Little Rock would be affected.

“We’re actually not commenting beyond the letter,” Alexander said.

Jiwanlal said in the letter the layoffs are tied to the economy.

“The downturn in the global economy continues to have a dramatic effect on the general and business aviation industry; Hawker Beechcraft is not immune to the decline,” he wrote.

The company announced in February it would lay off 2,300 employees during this calendar year. Friday’s layoffs will be part of that work force reduction and will affect all levels of the company, Jiwanlal said in the letter.